If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Crofter, good info, bad for my design. I will probably have to pre heat the SS and copper fittings on my set up. I do have one idea that I hope will eliminate any travel through pipes yet still use the box on top design. sort of you ideas of a hole in the side of the pipe rather than the end. Only my hole will be in an aluminum rod large enough for a closed end hole and the hot part of the glow plug directly below it. It will have to slide like a drawer through the wall of the box just far enough to be able to add the next dose of acid to the pocket then slide back in to be heated.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

I re arranged things a bit and now could slip it into a 3/4 high hive entrance. I made an enclosure for the bottom that will keep the glow plugs from being exposed. I said that my plugs would stand up to full battery voltage without burning out; apparently that may only be true when they are tightly screwed into a cylinder head that keeps the body temperature down. I will have to mess with a resistor, or charge in pulses, or perhaps with two glow plugs could hook them in series. Just details. If this wasnt fun and my time free, the 90$ price of the Heilyser Vaporizer would start to look very reasonable! Lol!

A charge of oxalic is only a half teaspoon or a tad more (very scientific) so you dont need a huge heat chamber. If you dont overdrive it, the oxalic is quite calm as it bubbles away; you dont need a lot of freeboard on the sides.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

lol, yeah I am sure I saw tad listed right in there with ohm. amp and mm somewhere.
Actually I have a tad measuring spoon. a pinch and a scosh as well so keep trying to throw me with those foreign forms of measurement. I am way ahead of you.

I am still looking for a way to power my glow plug. I got hurt yesterday and am not supposed to be walking so it has put a bit of a limp in my progress. I have a bit of an experiment going with melting wax in a 26 lb steel cylinder just setting out in the sun. the cylinder tipped over and landed on one of my toes. the cylinder is just fine. the toe not so much. we spent 12 hours yesterday just trying to get the bleeding to stop. I am minus a toe nail, the entire thing. and got a pretty nasty cut/ tear in the flesh as well. sort of tried to peel the skin off the end of my toe from just behind the nail. Lesson learned don't play with heavy metal objects while barefoot.

Anyway I am confined to a chair until we know the bleeding has stopped so it will slow me down for just a bit. My wife wants me to go to the ER, I am not agreeing just yet. It hurts enough without adding a doctor bill to it.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Oh No!' I can feel the throbbing! One thing about it, bee stings now wont amount to mosquito bites by comparison. On the charger; I have some old ones still going without the polarity sensing so you might pick one up at yard sale or Craigs List. Just make sure they are rated for about 15 amp. You can buy a lawn tractor battery for ~30$ and it should be good for at least 5 goes on a charge. Less trouble than stringing cord and charger.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Daniel Y,

Don't know how old you are or how your health is. But please don't mess around with significant wounds on your feet. They are notoriously slow to heal and subject to infection. If you wait until you HAVE to go, you could loose a foot, leg, or worse.

Do whatever it takes to get it cleaned, closed, and healed before something bad happens.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

It woudl be very interesting to play around with one of those irons. or any other similar item.
some of several questions that first came to mind where.
How large is it and woudl it fit through the opening of the hive? If not is there enough material to modify it enough to allow it to?

Could the handle be modified or replaced so as to be straight with the plate? if so how difficult would this modification be?

Could the heating element and controller simply be removed and used in a custom made plate?

If one of these where cannibalized just to see what they a re made of . could the individual parts be located at an even lower price?

The idea of a temp control is very desirable even if it is something that is pre set

In addition to making something of this sort work. devices that plug into a cigarette lighter and convert 12v DC to 110 ac do exist

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Daniel, the iron comes apart and the shoe can easily be replaced. After that, one would have to disassemble it to see what you had. I had one years ago and can't find it this morning. If I find it, I'd be happy to donate to the cause.

From memory, the iron is about three or four inches long and an inch and a half wide. Four screws hold the shoe, you can imagine what would be left without the shoe.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

I forgot that I had one of these irons in the garage. I did take it apart to look at it and may have to talk to a machinist friend. I do have some 1/2" stainless 304 tubing, but I may just finish the one I started with the glow plug. I will be out of town this weekend but may finish Sunday. My only concern with it is that the OA will be directly on the glow plug.

Originally Posted by Lburou

Daniel, the iron comes apart and the shoe can easily be replaced. After that, one would have to disassemble it to see what you had. I had one years ago and can't find it this morning. If I find it, I'd be happy to donate to the cause.

From memory, the iron is about three or four inches long and an inch and a half wide. Four screws hold the shoe, you can imagine what would be left without the shoe.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

There is an incredible variety of ideas appearing concerning these devices. Once some of them have been tried out I would really like to see a single thread or something in the way of an article made up of them. The way it is going it could be quite a project.

By the way, thanks all for the concern. The damage to my toes does not seem to be as bad as I first feared. I guess that might explain why I was not in as much pain as I first thought I should be. In all it did take nearly 60 hours to completely stop the bleeding, yet I was not really feeling any pain. It was confusing. We then focused on the possible causes my blood may not be clotting. One problem we found would have been a calcium and Vitamin K2 deficiency. I took supplements of both and the bleeding stopped within 2 hours. I am now taking daily doses of calcium, K2 and D3. I guess they all work together. the K2 and D3 are required for my Body to even use the calcium. I have had noticeable improvement of the toe for the past two days.

Again thanks for the concern and I just wanted to let you all know that it seems to be fine. I should be ready to go out and smash another one soon.

I am waiting for my OA to arrive still so I have not been able to test my design. So of the comments about the vapor condensating on the pipe has me concerned. But here are a few of my thoughts.

In the article at scientific beekeeping it is mentioned that a dose is 1.5 to 3 grams. (I believe grams is the unit of measure I do know the numbers are correct). It goes on to say that no measured improvement of mite kill was noticed with the higher dose. It appears that the most effective results are already reached with just 1.5 grams per box although a higher dose does not appear to be harmful. So if you are using the higher dosage there is room to loose up to half the acid to condensation etc and still effectively treat the hive.

I am using a 3/8 inch copper cap as my measuring spoon where one cap full will be one dose for a box. Unless I am mistaken those caps are approx 3 grams.

I am in hopes my acid arrives today as I really hope to get my hives treated soon.

More concern on the info I have found concerning treatment.

According to the most recent information I have been seeing it seems that multiple treatments (3 to 4) spaced a week to ten days apart is currently the common wisdom. In the article at SB (scientific beekeeping) He recommends only one treatment per year with some reference that more frequent treatments may be harmful to the bees. I do realize that the SB info is older and may not have been updated with more recent understanding of OA.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Originally Posted by Daniel Y

According to the most recent information I have been seeing it seems that multiple treatments (3 to 4) spaced a week to ten days apart is currently the common wisdom. In the article at SB (scientific beekeeping) He recommends only one treatment per year with some reference that more frequent treatments may be harmful to the bees. I do realize that the SB info is older and may not have been updated with more recent understanding of OA.

I've read the same thing. I believe the SB article was referring to treating by trickle once a year. You can supposedly treat by vapor as often as needed.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

I got my replacement glo plugs and decided I did not want them glowing that bright yellow. Since I am using two plugs straddling the dish I have a bit of heat to spare. 16" of stainless wire as a resistor takes them down to cherry red. I insulated the bottom and sides of my bowl to keep the heat in and reduce flame hazard in the hive. Probably would still be a good idea to rake the ladder comb off the bottom of the frames where you shove the vaporizer in. I have to try some measured charges and time the heat cycle. It takes close to a minute to start vapor but then there is a fair bit of coast with stored heat to finish boil off.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Couple of pictures. The chamber is about 1 1/2" long, 3/4" high and wide. Overall about 7/8" high and 1 1/2" wide. The cladding is aluminum with glass cloth surrounding chamber. Near the end of boil you can see the condensed whiskers of oxalic that hit the cold spots. There probably is not a whole lot of mass to it though. There is no residue on any parts that got up to temperature. It looks like it will take two minutes of current on and three minutes start till all the crystal has evaporated. My feeling is you will probably want to keep the weight as low as possible and the area small that you are heating. This is just proof of concept so no concessions to making it purty yet. No use putting on lipstick if it is still a pig!

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

"Add the cost of the acid and the total is 62.20. Still more than $100 cheaper than buying one ready made."

Daniel Y,

Check out these folks, http://www.members.shaw.ca/orioleln/index.html , they make & sell a 12 volt OA vaporizer for $ 90.00 plus s/h. They are out of Canada. Have not bought one yet, but I hear they are good folks to deal with. Just my 2 cents.

Re: My Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

Cool design Crofter.
Glad to hear that your healing well Daniel.

Everything I have read says you can vaporize OA several times. Trickling can only be done once a year. Less is more on the amount. I have read 1-2 grams per deep and to overdose you have to apply 8+ grams per deep.